Small-Cap Winners & Losers: DTS, Advanced Battery

These small-caps are making news today.

Small-cap stocks followed the major indices through an uneven trading day Monday, bouncing in and out of positive territory.

DTS ( DTSI), an Agoura Hills, Calif., entertainment technology provider, saw shares leap 12.5% to $27.40 after announcing a new sound technology to be unveiled this week at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The company will also partner with XStreamHD and Seagate ( STX) to provide technology for transmitting high-definition movies and music directly to the home, and Deutsche Securities added more good news by initiating coverage of DTS with a hold rating.

Advanced Battery Technologies ( GBT) rose on an announced partnership. The New York-based maker of batteries for Southeast Asian markets signed a $23 million contract with Wuxi Angell Autocycle to make batteries for Wuxi's electric bicycles and motorcycles. Shares surged 4.5% to $4.65.

Shares of digital security provider Entrust ( ENTU) jumped 9% to $1.93 as the Addison, Texas-based company reported preliminary fourth-quarter earnings. Revenue rose to $27 million for the quarter, and Entrust now predicts non-GAAP income of 4 cents a share, compared with zero cents a share a year ago.

For the year it expects earnings per share to break even, compared with an 8-cent EPS loss in 2006. The new guidance for both the quarter and the year is in line with the Street's expectations, per Thomson Financial.

Also rising were Fairview, Ore.-based forklift parts maker Cascade ( CAE) and Westlake, Ohio-based rest-stop operator TravelCenters of America ( TA). Cascade shares leapt 9.9% to $47.31 on a DA Davidson upgrade to buy from neutral, and TravelCenters climbed 9.8% to $12.30. Cascade announced that activist hedge fund Locksmith Capital Management had nominated two candidates to its board of directors.

Among the losers, shares of Empire Resorts ( NYNY), which operates the Monticello horseracing facility, were chopped in half to $1.42. The Department of the Interior denied an application by Empire Resorts' partner, the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, to place 29 acres at Monticello into trust for purposes of building a casino. Empire CEO David P. Hanlon called the decision "very disappointing."

Sunnyvale, Calf.-based ShoreTel ( SHOR) took a beating of similar severity as shares plummeted 54% to $6.02. The provider of switch-based Internet protocol systems announced lowered second-quarter guidance. It now expects revenue to range from about $30 million to $31 million, down from a previous forecast for $32 million to $35 million and below the Street's prediction of $34 million.

More broadly, the Russell 2000 was up 0.3% to 723.96, and the S&P SmallCap 600 lifted 0.4% to 375.09.